


if it's the end of the world (i don't wanna know)

by everyotherfreckle



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, alternate universe - attack the block, some violence but it isn't very graphic, this is a mess but you know you want to read it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-15 23:50:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8078383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyotherfreckle/pseuds/everyotherfreckle
Summary: rey can fix a lot of things, but she's afraid this is way beyond her capabilities.-or the attack the block au you didn't even realize you needed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> so i saw that one wonderful/amazing/spectacular/etc. fanart someone did of an atb!au featuring finnrey so naturally i had to try and write one bc...reasons. it's sort of a hot mess but it's _my_ hot mess.
> 
> anyhow, i hope y'all like this and leave kudos and lovely comments! <3

Rey can fix a lot of things, but she's afraid this is _way_ beyond her capabilities.

The staff in her hands – the one that she found tucked in the back of her closet that was a part of some long forgotten Halloween costume her older foster brother wore – suddenly feels heavy. Hiding behind the giant dumpster just outside the lower level of the block gives her a moment to reflect. She's killed a lot of... _things_ with this staff in the past couple of hours.

Rey's never killed anything outside of a pesky insect before this all started tonight.

The thought is enough to make her want to cry, but she is simply fresh out of tears. After watching Pava get dragged away by those _things_ \- yeah. She's just –she's cried all she can for the time being.

Just as she's about to try and make a beeline into the block to hide out in her flat in the hopes that she can call someone and find out just what in the _hell_ is going on, Rey hears footsteps. She knows it's not one of those _things_ – they don't necessarily have feet – so she hopes it's one of the people from her group that got lost when things really went fubar.

When she peers around the corner, her stomach drops.

"Well shit," she mutters, watching him wander aimlessly like an idiot in the wide-open courtyard.

Rey knows this guy. She's seen him around a few times hanging out with that group of idiot boys that like to be as loud and disruptive as they possibly can be. She's heard his friends refer to him as Eight-Seven, some idiotic nickname he's been given, she's sure.

He's got what looks like a katana in his hand and blood – _human_ blood –smeared across his face. His eyes look vacant as he slowly turns around in circles, muttering to himself. Whatever he's been through tonight, it's nearly broken him. If it hasn't already.

Rey is so caught up in watching him she almost doesn't see the creature on top of the courtyard overpass. It's glowing teeth are bared - it's the only way she can actually _see_ it - and seems locked in on Eight-Seven, who is none the wiser. She waits for him to move – or _stop_ moving – but he just continues to turn and mutter. Since she’s not too keen on sitting there and watching him get torn apart, Rey prepares to do something about it.

"Fucking hell," she curses as she sprints from behind the dumpster and makes it over to him just as that _thing_ leaps from the overpass. She swings her staff at it as hard as she can, momentarily knocking it on its back. It whimpers as she brings the end of the staff down on what she’s hoping is its neck. Hard to tell what exactly she’s aiming for considering the _thing_ is, well, _pitch black_. The only indication that she's done anything at all to it is the glowing white-blue liquid that gushes from it and onto the end of her staff.

That makes _four_ things she's killed tonight.

Eight-Seven seems to have snapped out of his daze and looks at her with immense appreciation.

"Thank you," he says after a long breath. "You saved my life."

Rey looks him up and down, at his crooked cap with some football team’s logo embroidered on it and the torn collar of his grey shirt hidden beneath his black jacket and the red stains on his white trainers. He certainly looks like he’s been through it.

"Yeah, well,” she shrugs. “You shouldn't be out in the open like this. It's dangerous."

He nods somberly. "I know, it's just – I just saw my friend get…I don't even know _what_ I saw. Guess I’m a little shell shocked."

Before she can offer her condolences – his friends were jerks but they didn't deserve to die – she spots a herd of glowing teeth in the distance coming _right towards them_. Without a second thought, Rey grabs his hand and starts dragging him into the block.

"Wait, wait, _wait_!" Eight-Seven stops them in front of the vending machines and for a moment Rey regrets ever saving his life. "You have to clean your staff. Whatever gunk you have on there from those _things_ , they can sense it. I'm pretty sure that's how they've been tracking people."

Rey blinks. That…makes a lot of sense. When Karé killed the first one of those _things_ , the goop – she isn’t sure she can even call it blood – from it had gotten on her arms. After that, it was almost like they were hunting Rey and her group. Eight-Seven's theory actually does a lot to explain why that was.

Rey shrugs off her jacket and wipes the entire staff, tossing the jacket as far away from the two of them as she can. The herd doesn't look like it's stopping, but it _does_ look like it's slowing down. Still, they need to get out of here _now_.

"Okay, lets go." Rey says, grabbing his hand again. She leads them all the way up the stairs – the elevator has dead creatures in it, so it's a tad out of order at the moment – and into her flat.

Once they're inside, Rey bolts the door behind them and slides the foyer table in front of it, just in case. Considering she was out with friends when this all started, she’s so happy to just finally be _home_.

Eight-Seven is leaning against the back of the couch breathing heavily. He drops his katana in favor of removing his cap to run a hand over his sweat-soaked hair.

" _Jesus_ , what _are_ those things?"

Rey isn't sure if his question is rhetorical or not, but she answers anyway.

"Exterminators, I reckon." She wets her lips, pulling the envelope off of the foyer table and handing it to him. He should know what it is, though. It was the notice put on everyone's doors almost two weeks ago. "Hired by First Order Development."

Eight-Seven frowns. "Care to explain?"

"They wanted to buy the block, yeah? But the owners wouldn't sell. They knew that if they did, those Order pricks would just evict everyone to clear out the place, destroy the buildings and build a shopping centre or something. My guess is that First Order took matters into their own hands. They sent those things to kill us all because it's a lot easier to buy a complex if all its tenants are dead."

When Rey first heard First Order Development was trying to buy the building she lived in, she immediately googled them. Shadily funded by corporations that didn't exist, long and extensive records of ‘accidents’ and ‘mishaps’ that usually worked in their favor _and_ a group of definitely evil executives heading it all? Rey was certain creating monsters was not that far removed from their know-hows. Especially since months before their interest in the block, their science department received a boost in funding and research. No doubt to breed those creatures they've turned loose tonight.

Eight-Seven doesn't scoff or look at her like she's crazy for thinking what she does. Instead he just shrugs and nods.

"Makes sense. From what I read on google, they are some twisted bastards." He waits a beat before speaking again. He extends his hand towards her. "Sorry. In all the chaos I totally forgot to introduce myself. I'm Finn."

Rey shakes his hand with a hint of a smile. She never knew his actual name. It's a rather nice name.

"Rey." She tilts her head curiously. "Why do your mates call you Eight-Seven, then?"

He looks somewhat embarrassed as he ducks his head, his hand cradling the back of his neck. “It’s…a long story.”

She’ll take that answer. For now. She’s got bigger things to worry about than the origin of some silly nickname. Like, for example, how to survive the night.

A loud noise draws both Rey and Finn’s attention to her living room window. They both huddle around it, craning to see what the ruckus was about. It was just a couple of policemen investigating the dead carcass of the _thing_ Rey killed just a few minutes earlier.

“How many of them do you think are out there?” Finn asks in a hushed whisper.

“No clue. When I was with my friends, we ran into three of them. The one you and I came across makes four, and you said you encountered one, right?”

“Two. I killed them, though. Plus that herd we saw.” He turns suddenly, which his face unnervingly close to hers. It’s a silly sort of thing to notice – _especially_ at a time like this – but Finn is actually pretty cute. “From what I read before my mobile got smashed, this is an isolated incident, just in the block.”

Rey thinks for a moment. “Which means however many we’ve seen has to be all that’s out there, yeah?”

Finn nods. “So eleven of them in total, but only four actually still alive.”

Before Rey can say anything, there’s another loud noise coming from the downstairs courtyard. Only this time, it’s screams.

The two of them look out the window yet again to see one of the policemen’s body slumped over a nearby bench and the other struggling to fight off one of the creatures. Finn immediately springs into action, striding quickly over to where he dropped his katana, picking it up again as he does. Rey follows suit, grabbing her staff from against the doorjamb. She doesn’t even need to ask to know he’s thinking the same thing she is.

“So, Rey, I know we only just met but,” something of a sly smirk stretches across Finn’s face before he continues. “You wanna go save the block together?”

“The block?” Rey scoffs. “Please, Finn. We’d be saving _the world_.”

“I like the sound of that.” He hums thoughtfully.

Rey pauses before she opens the door for a multitude of reasons, – are they _really_ about to go and try to kill a bunch of science lab aliens with a _stick_ and a _sword_? – one she reasons she might as well get out of the way now.

“And when this is over,” because this _will_ be over. “We should hang out. Maybe do something that doesn’t involve weapons and aliens?”

Once he finally realizes what she’s implying, Finn nods with a bright grin. “Yeah! That’d be – yeah, that’d be cool.”

Rey gives him a grin of her own. There were probably better times to ask a guy out – preferably when they’re not about to head into a ridiculously dangerous situation that _could_ possibly result in death – but hey. When life gives you lemons, you carve out a little time to ask out the cute guy that's going to go save the world with you.

“Now that that’s settled, let’s go kick some alien arse.”


End file.
